Ammunition feeding means



May '1, 1951 w. M KENZIE AMMUNITION FEEDING MEANS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 30, 1945 I nventar \M/bur L Mackenzie y 1951 w. M KENZIE 2,550,837

AMMUNITION FEEDINGMEANS Filed Nov. 30, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Q Q o 0 O o o g o o u 6 l2 0 O 0 u o 0 I o 6 O o o Q 0 o o Q /6 68 7o I mnrii VN-If I/II/II I I I I IIJ 56 66 F594 74/ //////:1 mi ls; r 78 I 72 Patented May 1, 1951 AMMUNITION FEEDING MEANS Wilbur L. MacKenzie, Beverly, Mass, assignor :to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J a corporation of New Jersey Original application July 3, 1944, Serial No. 543,344, now Patent No. 2,479,633, dated August 23, 1949. Divided and this application November 30, 1945, Serial No. 631,867 1 The present invention relates to ammunition feeding means and is herein illustrated in its application to means for feeding and guiding cartridge belts to a plural gun assembly in the tail portion of an airplane. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that embodiments of the illustrated ammunition feeding means in vehicles other than airplanes and also in fixed gun emplacements come within the scope of the present invention.

It is usual in machine guns'of the type herein illustrated to provide means operated by the recoil of the gun for feeding a cartridge belt into the feedway of the gun. The tail gun assembly in an airplane usually receives ammunition from a trough located substantially amidships and the length and Weight of a section of cartridge belt extending from the trough to the gun assembly is such that the cartridge feeding mechanism of the gun requires assistance in drawing the belt from the trough. The illustrated organization includes a known type of booster motor for assisting, the feed of the cartridge belt and known means for controlling the operation of the booster motor comprising a movable chute herein illustrated as a channel member through which the cartridge belt is fed and means operated by movement of said channel member for starting and stopping said booster motor. The illustrated channel member is so constructed and arranged 3 Claims. (01. 89-33) that it swings in accordance with variations in tension of the cartridge belt causing the booster motor to begin to operate when the load becomes great and to stop after the tension has been substantially released. The cartridge belt is fed through the channel member into a funnel the small end of which communicates with a flexible.

belt passes from the channel member through a very restricted space in the tail portion of the airplane to a feedwayin one side of the chamber of a gun. Because of the arrangement of the feedway and the restricted space through which the cartridge belt is required to travel it has been 1 found necessary to provide a flexible chute for guiding the cartridge 'be'lt during its movement through said restricted space into the feedway of the gun. The construction operation of the channel member andl th'e ammunition chutes mustbe'such that the cartridge belt willat all times pass freely into the channel member and from the channel member to the flexible chute. With this in view there is provided in accordance with the present invention a belt feeding and guiding means comprising a rigid chute through which the cartridge belt is fed, belt feed-.

ing mechanism such, for example, as a booster motor mounted on said rigid chute, a movable chute which, in the illustrated organization, is the channel member above referred to, said movable chute being hinged at the delivery end of. said rigid chute and arranged to receive a car-' tridge belt from said rigid chute, another chute which, in the illustrated organization, is the flexible chute above referred to, located in constant 'communication'with the delivery end of said movable chute and arrangedto receive a cartridge belt therefrom, and means operated by swinging movement'of said movable chute for causing the operation of the booster motor.

These and other features of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the ap-' pended claims.

In the drawings; I

'Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the tail portion of Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing the gun: mount and a portion of the ammunition feedin I mechanism in an extreme position; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged plan view, partly in section, illustrating a portion of one of the cartridge belt guiding assemblies.

4 Referring to Fig. 1, the numeral I0 indicates the tail portion of the fuselage of an airplane? and the numeral l2 indicates two guns of a four-.

gun assembly projecting rearwardly from the tail end of the airplane, said guns, as herein illustrated, being .50 cal. machine guns of known construction. The four guns I2 are supported on one cradle I4 pivotally mounted on a bent col umn It for swinging movement heightwise of the airplane, hereinafter referred to as movements in elevation, said column being pivotally mounted in supporting brackets l8 and 20 for swinging,-

movement about an axis extending heightwise of the plane to provide for widthwise swinging 1 movements of the guns, hereinafter referred to as movements in azimuth.

Ammunition for the four-gun assembly is stored-.2

amidships and is fed to the guns through four separate systems of ammunition guides or chutes. To facilitate feeding, the ammunition is provided in belts, preferably of the disintegrating metallic link construction. The cartridge belts are fed, or drawn, through the chutes by the cartridge feeding mechanism of the respective gunsjassisted by automatically actuated feeding means located at an intermediate position lengthwise of each systern of chutes. In tracking a target, the gun assembly has a wide range of movement andthe ammunition chutes connected to the guns must be so constructed and arranged as to beSmQVable with the gun assembly in its target tracking movements. To this end that section of each sys-' tem of chutes connected to the gun isof a flexible one side of the airplane are illustrated in Fig. '1.

In each system the ammunition belt is fed from a tr ugh v o sh wn ca ed app ximately ainidships, through a fixed rigid chute 2| extend eme nestle chu he. de i e y end or t e fle ib chute is attached to a rigid chute'24 arranged to ex end lon the insi e W l et, ne sideet the fuselage. The rigid chute is supported for longitudinal movement in a plurality of brackets .6 ne of which is llustra ed gh acke s an ed in an cl ned position and s r d to a lat 8 m u te n a panel ehe e t e bs 3 of t t te a e, For s p: porting the rigid chute 24 within the brackets 2.6 as: br ke as p v l y m u d in th lower portion thereof a roll 34 having flanges at each end between which flanges a hollow tongue 36 extending downwardly from the rigid chute 24 is mounted The lower er enof the-rigid chute s peti ed hwi e f t r t by twerolls 38 pivotally mounted between angle brackets 40 nd arranged e te d in ar ly th ou h openings in the bracket 26 Similarly, the upper portion of the rigid chute i positioned widthwise of the bracket 26 by ro-lls 42 pivotally mountedb etween angle brackets 44. For holding the rigid hu e heigh wisemoveme t 19 545 are ar ange eX't nd th u h an pen ng in the top or t e. e 'e flfi for e a em t wi h h upper surface of the rigid chute. The rigid chute is so con-,

structed and arranged that the cartridge belt slides through it in upright position with the Shell 48 r t e cartridge supported "on the base f. the id c ute a d. reie t l 1 5 tiened een he b aded marg nal port ons o a cha n l late 52 secu ed n the upper p tien' of the rigid chute. The ammunition belt passes from the delivery end. of the r id chute 24 through a short chute or channel member 54 and from said short chute through a flexible chute 56 thedelivery end of which ismounted in the: feedway of one of the guns I; as best shown in Fig.3. Referring to Fig.- 4, the channel member 54 is hinged on a pin 58 mounted in plates 60 secured to "the flexible chute 56 by screws62 and rigidly secured to the rigid chute'24 between the end portions ofbars 64. The channel member 54 has a short range of swinging movement from its full line positio'iiin Fig. 4 'toits position:

indicated by broken. lines. During such movebent plates 66 secured to the end portions of the plate 60. Thus, in all positions of the swingingv channel member 54 its delivery end registers arwardly from said trough, then through a' with the giiideway provided by the plates 66 and the movement of the cartridge belt proceeds Without interruption in any position of said channel member. The channel member is normally retained in its full line position as illustrated in Fig. ,4; by a spring 68 mounted on a pin 70 secured to an angle bracket '12 mounted on the rigid chute 24, said spring being arranged to bear against an end portion of a bent arm 14 secured to the channel member 54 and bifurcated to embrace the pin l9, When the channel member is in its normal position illustrated in Fig. 4 the cartridge belt travels in a curved path as it passes from the delivery end of the channel member through the funnel provided by the bent plates During the firing of the gun the cartridge belt is drawn through the series of 'guideways above described, by mechanism (not shown), operated by the recoil of the gun. The

tension imparted to the cartridge belt by the feed mechanism in the gun straightens. that portion of the belt passing through the channel mem; ber 54 and the adjacent funnel thereby swing? ing the channel member into its broken line position illustrated in Fig. 4,, The bent arm 14, moving with they channel member '54 acts against a plunger '16, to close a switch, mounted in a boxv lfi'secured to the angle bracket 12. The closing of said switch causes the operation. of a motor (Fig. l) secured to the rigid chute 24. Said motor operating through suitable gearing (not shown) actuates, a pair of sprockets 82 the teeth of which project through an opening in the rigid chute 24, for engagement with the cartridges. mounted therein. Theoperation of the sprockets 82 assists in the feeding movement of the cartrid e belt thusv relieving the recoil mechanism or the gun which, as commonly constructed, is not designed to draw a cartridge belt through a series ofguidew ays as long as that herein 1111157 trated After a, very brief period of operation of the sprockets 82 the tension on the portion of the cartridge belt passing through the channel member 54 and the 'adjacentguideway is. relieved sufiiciently to permit the spring 58 to return the hannel member to its full line position illus-. trate'd in Fig. 4,.whereupon a spring (not shown) in the switch box 18, opens. the switch and causes the operation of thesprockets 82 to be arrested. It will be understoodthatthe sprockets 82 will be Operated intermittently at frequentintervals during the firing. oi the, gun and will relieve the ammunition, feeding mechanism of the gun of the greater part of the burden of feeding the ammunition belt. The above-described mecha-. nism for assisting inthe feeding of the ammuni-. tionbelt, together with thefswinging channel member for operating the; switchisprovided in each of the four ammunition feeding systemsv provided for the four-gun assembly illustrated in the drawings,

In the illustrated organization the rigid chutes 24 are constructed and: arranged for movement lengthwise, of the airplane and the chutes 22 and 56 are, of a flexible construction which facilitates ch m v m n h r d, h he move-- ment of the rigid chutes is effected automatically bymeans actuated by movement of the gun assembly in azimuth and in elevation. Theext the i o the mo em nts f he. id hu es. re seht et he fl xibl hut s e have a substantially constant amount of v slack an d ell. men if he nunthe. mechanism whereby the movements of the gun assembly are transmittedto the rigid chutes is illustrated and described in my copending application for United States Letters Patent Serial No. 543,344, filed July 3, 1944, Patent No. 2,479,633, dated August 23, 1949, of which the present application is a division.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Means for guiding a cartridge belt comprising a rigid chute, a movable chute mounted to swing on an axis having a fixed relation to said rigid chute, the hinged end portion of said movable chute being arranged to communicate with said rigid chute, a flexible chute, and a funnel the small end of which communicates with said flexible chute and the expanded end of which communicates with the free end of said movable chute during the entire range of swinging movement of said chute, a booster for feeding said cartridge belt, and means operated by the swin ing movement of said movable chute for causing the operation of said booster. I

2. The combination with a gun, of means for guiding a cartridge belt to said gun comprising a series of chutes including a rigid chute and a flexible chute, means securing said rigid chute and said flexible chute together in spaced relation to each other comprising two side plates secured to opposite side portions of the rigid chute and secured also to opposite side portions of the flexible chute, a movable chute positioned between the side plates and pivotally mounted on said plates adjacent to the delivery end of said rigid chutes, and two bent plates secured to the flexible chutes and providing, together with said side plates, a funnel-shaped passage the expanded end portion of which registers with the delivery end of said movable chute.

3. The combination with a gun, of means for guiding a cartridge belt to said gun comprising a series of chutes including a rigid chute and a flexible chute, means securing said rigid chute and said flexible chute together in spaced relation comprising two side plates secured to opposite side portions of the rigid chute and secured also to opposite side portions of the flexible chute, a movable chute positioned between the side plates and pivotally mounted on said plates adjacent to the delivery end of said rigid chutes, two bent REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,358,255 Seufer et a1. Nov. 9, 1920 2,380,773 McMullen July 31, 1945 2,382,715 Hertel Aug. 14, 1945 2,428,414 Elliott Oct. 7, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 366,247 Italy Dec. 22, 1938 OTHER REFERENCES Martin Ammunition Booster Units, published by Glenn L. Martin Company, Baltimore, Mary-- land; received December 12, 1945, 

